CHAPTER II

PRINCE MAHAVIRA

1.The Land and the Parent:

India in the 6th Century B.
C. was not under the political control of one single power. There was no Empire
at that time which could bring all religions of the country under one
administration. Instead India was divided and
sub-divided into a number of large and
small Kingdoms and principalities. Among such major Kingdoms those of Magadha, Anga, Kashi, Kosala, Vatsa, Panchala, Kalinga, Avanti, Gandhara, and Kamboja were more
prominent in the northern and eastern Regions of India.Even among these Kingdoms, the Kingdom of Magadha in the east corresponding to the modern Bihar, enjoyed a very pre-eminent position
and hence it was often described as the Empire of Magadha. This empire was ruled by the monarchs belonging to the Shishunaga Dynasty and its capital Rajagraha
was the most leading city of the times. Naturally Magadha exerted much influence over the lives of the people in eastern India.

Along
with the major Kingdoms there flourished a number of Ganarajyas
or republics formed by different Kshatriya clans. The
Ganarajyas were established mainly for securing
protec­tion against external attacks from the adjoining Kingdoms. These Ganarajyas were based on democratic traditions and were
governed by the representatives of Kshatriya Clans.
Such a representative was given the appellation of ‘Raja' i.e. the King.

Among the Ganarajyas
of the time, the Ganarajya of Videha
was very famous. Videha corresponds to mostly with
the modern Tirhut Division of BiharState.In ancient times the region from the bank of the river Gandaka to the forest of Champaranya was called Videha
or Tirabhukti. It was bounded on the East, West and
South by three big rivers, the Kosi, the Gandaka and the Ganga, while the NepalTarai
regions formed its northern boundary. This area
comprises the present Districts of Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Champaran, Munger and Purnia of BiharState. The capital of Videha
was Vaishali, the modern Basadh
in Hajipur Sub-Division of Muzaffarpur
District. This VidehaGanarajya
was constituted by eight Rajas representing eight major Kshatriya
clans, viz.

1.Lichchhavi,

2.Vrji.

3.Jnatrika.

4.Videhi.

5.Ugra.

6.Bhoga.

7.Ikshvaku, and

8.Kaurava.

Among these eight Kshatriya
clans, the Lichchhavi clan was very powerful and
enjoyed the most respectable position. The I,ichchhavis
were known for their bravery, wealth, edu­cation, beauty and other
accomplishments. They always valued freedom and self-respect. They consistently
opposed the attacks on their territory and preferred to lead an indepen­dent
life. They were religious-minded persons and for a long time they were the
devout followers of Jainism. In view of this dominent
position wielded by the Lichchhavis in the VidehaGanarajya, the latter was
often referred to as the LichchhaviGanarajya. Similarly, Chetaka,
the Raja or the representative of the Lichchhavi clan
on the VidehaGanarajya or
republic, was known as Ganarajya-pramukha, i.e., the
main Raja of VidehaGanrajya.

Vaishali,the capital of Videha
and of the Lichchhavis was a very prosperous,
beautiful and rich city. Hiuen-tsang, the famous chinese pilgrim, has described Vaishali
as a great, extensive city abounding in palaces, temples, parks and lakes. It
is stated that the population of Vaishali at that
time was 1,68,000 and that there were about 8,000 big houses in the city. These
big houses were just like palaces and to each such house was invariably
attached a garden and a lake. It is further mentioned that the city was divided
into three dis­tinct areas- such as the Rich class areas, the Middle
Class area and the Low Glass area. These
areas could, be easily identified from the metal used in the
construction of Domes in the area.It is
also reported that in Vaishali city there were 7,000
Gold Domes, 14,000 Silver Domes and 21,000 Copper Domes. The city was always
busy in varied political, religious, educational and cultural activities
carried out through the agencies of Parishads or
Councils.It is mentioned that eight
such Parishads viz.

1.KshatriyaParishad,

2.ShramanaParishad,

3.BrahmanaParishad
(or VidvatParishad),

4.GrihapatiParishad

5.ChaturmaharajikaParishad

6.TrayamtrimsaParishad,

7.Mara Parishad and.

8.Brahma Parishad,

were usually working in the city.

Vaishali
city was surrounded by ‘Upanagaras’ i.e. suburbs like
Kundalpura, Vaniyagrama
etc.Among these suburbs, Kundalapura was very adjacent to Vaishali
and was known as an important centre of the JnatrikaKshatria. Kundalapura is now
known as Vāsukunda or Vasukunda.Kundalapura has
been referred to in Prakrit and Sanskrit books by
different names like Kundaggama, Kundagrama,
KshatriyaKunda­grama, Kundalipura, Kundapura, Sirikundagama, Kundala and Kundanagara.Vaishali and Kundalapura had not
only close geographical ties but had very intimate political, social and
religious ties. This intimacy could be gauged by the family and clan
relationships between Chetaka, the Ganaraja­-Pramukha of Vaishali
and Siddhartha, the Ganaraja of Kundala­pura
(Vaishali).

Chetaka,
the Ganaraja-Pramukha of Videha
republic was renowned as the great Lichchhavi King of
Vaishali.In Jaina books he is referred to as the Kshatriya
Prince belong­ing to IkshvakuVansha
and VasishthaGotra.Chetaka was married
to Bhadra or Subhadra.BothChetaka and Subhadra
were great devotees of Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara, as the Lichchhavis
were the devout followers of Jainism. They had ten princes and sevenprincesses.The names of ten princes were as follows :-

(1) Simha or Simhabhadra,(2) Dhana,

(3) Dantabhadra,(4) Upendra,

(5) Sudatta,(6) Sukumbhoja,

(7) Akampana(8) Supatanga,

(9) Prabhanjana and(10) Prabhasa.

All these
princes were valiant and helped their father, King Chetaka
in the defence of their territory.In fact, the eldest prince Simhabhadra was the Senapati,
i.e. the Chief of the Army of Videha republic.

King hetaka
and QueenSubhadrawere blessed with seven daughters,
viz.(1) Trishala,
(2) Mrugavati or Priyavati,
(3) Suprabha, (4) Prabhavati,
(5) Chelana or Chelani, (6)
Jyeshtha (7) Chandana.The second princess Mruga­vati
was married to King Shataniki of Kaushambi.
The famous King VatsarjaUdayana
was their son. The third princess Suprabha was given
in marriage to King Dasharatha of DasharnaState. The fourth Princess Prabhavati
became the Queen of King Udayana of Sindha-Sauvira or Cutch in inGujarata.The fifth
princess Chelana was given in marriage to the Emperor
Shrenika or Bimbisara of Magadha and became his senior queen.Both Emperor Shrenika
and Queen Chelana were the great patrons of Jaina religion and were constantly referred to in Jaina literature as the devout followers of Mahavira.The sixth
princess Jyeshtha and the seventh princess Chandana remained unmarried throughout their lives and
devoted their energies in the propagation of Jaina
religion. In fact Chandana entered the ascetic order
formed by Mahavira and eventually became the head of
the female ascetics of the order.

The first princess Trishala* was married to King Siddhartha, the Ganaraja of Kundalapura (Vaishali),who
belonged to the Kshatriya clan of the Jnatrikas.King Siddhartha hailed from KashyapaGotra and was the son of
King Sarvartha and Queen

S* According to another version, Trishala
was sister of King Chetakaand not daughter of
King Chetaka.

Shrimati.King Siddhartha was also known as Shreyamsa and Yashamsa. King Siddartha and Queen Trishala, in
course of time, gave birth to Mahavira and earned the
extraordinary reverence and respect as the parents of the 24th Tirthankara of the Jainas.In this way Mahavira,
through his parents, was closely related to the powerful royal families of Videha, Magadha, Kaushambi and other important Kingdoms of the
time.

2. The Birth and the Childhood:

King Siddhartha and Queen Trishaladevi were leading a religious and peaceful life in
the seven storeyed Palace, known as NandyvartaRajaprasada situated
in Kundalapur, the suburb of Vaishali
which was the capital city of Videha republic.As Trishaladevi
belonged to Videha republic, she was termed as Videhi (i.e. of Videha) or Videhadatta (i.e. given by Videha).
Due to her amiable and kind acts towards others, Trishala
was popularly known as Priyakarini, i.e. the doer of
good acts. Trishala was also famous as an ideal lady
and queen since she possessed in a great measure all the essential attributes
of a faithful wife and a devoted queen.Naturally
Trishala was very dear to King Siddhartha and was
immensely loved and respected by her subjects.

When
Siddhartha and Trishala were passing their days in
happiness, a pleasant and unusual event occurred in the life of Trishala. it so happened that on the last part of the night
of the sixth day of the bright half of the month of Ashadha
when Moon was in HastaNakshatra,
Queen Trishala in her sound and calm sleep saw
sixteen beautiful dreams. In these 16 auspicious dreams she witnessed the
following 16 objects in succession.

l.Gaja, i.e. an elephant,

2. Vrishabha, i.e. a bull,

3. Simha, i.e. a lion,

4. Lakshmi, i.e. goddess Lakshmi,

5. Mala-Yugma, i.e. pair of garlands,

6. Shashi, i.e. the Moon,

7. Surya, i.e. the Sun,

8. Jhasha-yugala,
i.e. a pair of fishes.

9. Kalasha-Yugala,
i.e. a pair of pitchers,

10. Sarovara,
i.e. a lake.

11. Samudra,
i.e. an ocean,

12. Simhasana,
i.e. a throne,

13. Deva-Vimana,
i.e. a divine aerial car,

14. Nagendra-bhavana
i.e. a house of Nagendra,

15. Ratna-rashi,
i.e. a heap of jewels, and

16. Nirdhuma-agni,
i.e., a smokeless fire.

Queen Trishala
got up immediately after witnessing these dreams and began to contemplate over
them. Indeed she was extremely eager to know the meaning and indication of the
succession of the special objects seen in these sixteen dreams.Soon after finishing her bath and worship,
she hurriedly went with high expectations to meet King Siddhartha in the
Palace.It was really a pleasant
surprise for King Siddhartha to find Queen Trishla
entering the Palace in great eagerness at an early hour of the day.King Siddhartha received her with great love,
made her to seat near him on the left side of his throne and anxiously enquired
the reason of her morning visit. Queen Trishala
communicated to, him the successsion of
sixteen dreams seen by her in the very early hours of the morning and
respectfully asked the purport of these dreams.The King was extremely happy to know about these dreams as he was an
expert in the art of interpretation of dreams.The
King predicted that the queen would give birth to an illustrious son destined
to be a Tirthankara in this very life and while
explaining in detail the meanings of these dreams, he narrated the good things
and qualities suggested by them.

Realising
the special significance attached to these dreams that only the mothers of
would-be Tirthankaras get such a succession of
sixteen dreams, both King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala
felt extreme happiness and eagerly awaited to see the auspicious face of their
son. They had not to wait for long.On
the conclu­sion of nine months, seven days and twelve hours of the period of pregancy after the day of conception when she saw those
sixteen dreams (i.e. Friday, 17thJune 599 B.C.), Queen Trishalagavebirth to a son at Kundalapura (Vaishali) during the
last hours of the night on the thirteenth day of the bright halfof the month Chaitra.Thus
Mahavira saw the light of the day on Monday, the 27th
March 598 B.C. At the time of his birth the Nakshatra
(i.e. constellation) was UttaraPhalguni,
the Rashi (i.e. a sign of the Zodiac) was Kanya, the Samvatsara (i.e. the the name of the year) was Siddhartha, the Chinha (i.e. the emblem) was Lion, and the Varna (i.e. the colour was Svarnabha (i.e. golden).

The happy tidings of the birth of the Prince to King
Siddhartha and Queen Trishala was received with great
joy by all residents of Vaishali (Kundalapur)
city and the Videha republic and the entire region
wore a festive appearance. King Siddhartha and his relatives celebrated the
occasion with royal pomp and glory. Common people also participated in the
celebrations with great enthusiasm and love. They bedecked their houses with
lamps, flowers, buntings, and flags, adorned their bodies with new garments and
ornaments, decorated the streets with arches and auspicious symbols, performed
worships in the temples, sang eulogistic songs, staged dance and drama perfor­mances
and thus gave expression to their joy and mirth in innu­merable ways. In memory
of this great event King Siddhartha made special arrangements to give presents
of different kinds to the needy and poor people of his republic. These
festivities continued unabated for ten days and on the twelfth day the
auspicious naming ceremony of the Prince was accomplished in the presence of
the persons specially assembled for the purpose. While addressing the gathering
King Siddhartha declared that “Since the conception of their child nine months
ago we have witnessed every prosperity in Videha
republic, in Vaishali capital, in Kundalpur
suburb and in our family, we have decided to name the Prince as ‘Vardhamana’ (i.e. the Prosperous One).The declaration was highly appreciated by the
public with great applause.

The child-prince Vardhamana
was not only extremely beautiful but also possessed various physical traits of
an unusual nature. His limbs were greatly proportionate and without defects of
any kind. His body-structure was
strong and his body-odour was pleasant.His speech was soft and melodious. His body possessed 1008 auspicious physical
attributes like Shankha (Conch), Chakra
(circle), Kamala (lotus), Dhanusha (bow), etc. He
also showed superb intelligence and developed grasping capacity.

The news about the most beautiful
and talented child-prince Vardhamana did spread far
and wide and many persons of authority were eager to see the child-prince. Once
a couple of sages, named Sanjaya(or Sanjayanta)
and Vijaya (or Vijayanta),
who had heard about the greatness of this baby-prince, came to see him. At his
very glance they felt so much exhilarated that they exclaimed: “How beautiful
he looks!” Not only this much, they also felt that their philosophical doubts,
which were troub­ling their mind since long, had disappeared. They went their
way duly satisfied after bestowing the name of ‘Sanmati’
(i.e. Good Intellect), and proclaimed a great future for him.

As Prince Vardhamana
entered boyhood, people soon realised that he
possessed in great measure the rare qualities like bravery, self-control,
fearlessness, helping-nature, courage etc. Many events gave eloquent testimony
of the attributes of his gifted personality.Once while Prince Vardhamana was engrossed in
play with his friends in the courtyard of his Palace, he was suddenly
disturbed to hear a loud noise of screams in fear and helplessness from the
streets of Kundalapura. Instantly, he came out of the
Palace and ran towards the site of the noise. There he saw that one royal
elephant had gone amok and that the citizens were running frightfully in
different directions in a frantic bid to escape from the onslaught of the mad
elephant. This dangerous sight did not create any fear in his mind.On the contrary he immediately showed
his presence of mind and staring straight at the elephant he loudly ordered the
elephant to remain calm.To the great
surprise of the frightened persons the elephant instantly became peaceful.
After pacifying the elephant, Prince Vardhamana
personally mounted the elephant and in a cool manner directed the elephant
towards its resting place. People were
tremendously impressed by this rare feat of courage and bravery and from that
time began to address him by the name “Vira” i.e. the Hero.

On another occasion when Prince Vardhamana was out in
the royal gardens playing with his
companions the game of hide and seek, he and his playmates were surprised to
hear clearly a hissing sound. When the sound came quite close, they found a.
large poisonous cobra coming towards them. The boys immediately scattered away
in all directions, screaming with fear, but the Prince did not budge an inch
and stood calm and quiet at his place. When the cobra came almost near him
hissing out poisonous sparks vehemently and tried to attack him, the Prince
caught hold of its tail, lifted it and threw it away easily. The playmates witnessed
this unusual feat of great courage with awe and surprise. But their curiosity
became highly increased when they saw the transformation of the cobra into a
semi-god of the heavens. The real fact was that the cobra was the form assumed
by one good named ‘Sangama’ to test the power and
fearlessness of Prince Vardhamana. After realising the strength and courage of Prince Vardhamana, Sangama-deva revealed
his real identity and in praise said to him that he is indeed a Mahavira, i.e. a Great Hero.Sangama-deva was so
much over-­joyed that he placed the boy-prince on his
shoulder and began to dance along with Chaladhara, Kakadhara and Pakshadhara, the
three close companions of Prince Vardhamana.

After
this incident Prince Vardhamana was known as Prince Mahavira and eventually ‘Mahavira’
became his popular name so much that later on Vardhamana
was always referred to as Mahavira. Other synonymous
terms like ‘Ativira’, ‘Viranatha’
and ‘Mahativira’ were also commonly used to denote
him.Because of his intimate connections
with Vaishali city and Videha
republic, the names like ‘Vaishalika’, ‘Vaishaliya (i.e. belonging to Vaishali),
‘Videhadatta’ (i.e. given by Videha)
and Videha­sukumara' (i.e. tender prince of Videha) are freely assigned to him.Since Vardhamana hailed from the Jnatr or Jnatrika clan of the Kshtriyas, he was also referred to as ‘Jnataputra’,
or Jnatrpufra’ (i.e. the Son of the Jnatr Clan).As the
terms ‘Nata’ or ‘Natha’ are
derived from the word ‘Jnatr’ many a time Vardhamana was mentioned as ‘Nataputta’
(i.e. the son of the Jnatr clan) in Pali literature and ‘Natha-kulanandana’
or ‘Nathanvaya’ (i.e. hailing from the Jnatr clan or family) in Sanskrit literature.

Prince
Mahavira's regular education started at the age of
eight. Soon his teachers realised the extraordinary
talents possessed by him. He rapidly began to imbibe knowledge imparted to him
and even to show proficiency in the acquired knowledge.He had the rare capacity to grasp easily any
new subject and to express effectively the learned subjects. His teachers
always used to appreciate the learned way in which he usually gave answers to
various questions.

3.The Youth
and the Aspirations:

Gradually
Prince Mahavira passed the stage of adolescene and entered adulthood. The advent of youth
bestowed addi­tional charm and dignity on his natural beautiful personality.
His physical strength increased to a great extent and his knowledge developed
beyond measure. His intelligence became more acute and his beauty surpassed the
usual limits. Thus different facets of
his personality sufficiently bloomed as he be­came a young man.Further, being a Prince, all comforts and
luxuries of the royal life were at his disposal.He was very well connected to several important royal
families of the time through his father and especially through his mother.

In this way young Prince Mahavira possessed various accom­plishments and developed a
handsome personality. He had all opportunities and different facilities to
build a political career for himself. But he never showed any inclination to­wards
harbouring political ambitions and securing more and
more wordly pleasures. In fact, he never aspired for
acquisi­tion of material wealth and political
power. On the contrary Mahavira never took any interest
in family affair and in political matters. He did not indulge in extravagance
of any kind. Instead he always valued the virtue of self-control and invariably
attached great importance to the actual practise of
giving help to others. He firmly believed in the principles of right conduct
and of equality towards all living beings. That is why it is stated that right
from his eighth-year Mahavira used to observe five Anu-Vratas (i. e. small views) prescribedby Jaina religion.
These facts clearly reveal that aspirations ofyoung Prince Mahavira were not towards leading
a life of worldly pleasants but were in the
directions to lead a life of self-control
and to help others in securing ultimate happiness.

King Sidhartha
and Queen Trishala had an idea about these spiritual
and religious inclinations of their son, Mahavira.
They were aware that he did not belong to the category of ordinary Princess who
are deeply interested in building their political careers. They were equally
conscious of Mahavira'saversionto
increaseworldly attachments and hisintense desire to concentrate on
thinking and self-contemplation. They were also sure that Mahavira
would eventually follow the path of asceticism prescribed by Jaina religion and would achieve the highest - position as
the promulgator of Jaina religion.

Even though these facts were
weighing very heavily on the minds of King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala, their parental affection goaded them to see that Mahavira leads a married life before he embark on his path
of spiritual progress. They did not feel anything wrong in planning this house­holder's
stage, in the religion-oriented career of Mahavira
because they knew that Lord Rishabhadeva, the first Tirthan­kara entered the ascetic order after leading a
contented married life. They really thought that in deference to their ardent
desires Mahavira would adopt this course of
life.

Accordingly King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala
gave to their relatives the indication of their mind to arrange soon the
marriage ceremony of their son, Mahavira. As many
Kings of the time became aware of this intention to get Mahavira
married, they hastened to make their proposals. Naturally different Kings vied
with each other to have a matrimonial alliance with this scion of the Jnatrka clan. Among these marriage proposals King
Siddhartha and Queen Trishala finally gave approval
to the proposal of Princess Yashoda, the daugh­ter of
King Jitashatru and Queen Yashodaya
of Kalinga State. This proposal was given highest
preference because Princess Yashoda was most superb
in beauty and other accomplishments among the Princesses of the time. There was
another consi­deration also in the proposal of Princess Yashoda
and that was she happened to be the daughter of Yashodaya,
who was younger sister of King Siddhartha. Hence King Siddhartha and QueenTrishala finally
decided to get Prince Mahavira ‘married to ­Princess Yashoda.

When Prince Mahavira
came to know of the negotiations going on about his marriage, he felt extreme
grief about these developments. He never harbouredany idea to indulge
in sensual pleasure and did not even think of the gratification of
sex-desire.In fact he had already made
up his mind not to get himself entangled in any kind of worldly activity which
would detract him from his path of spiritual progress. That is why Mahavira outright rejected the marriageproposal and
in a polite manner conveyed to his parents his firm resolve to observe strict celibacy throughout
his life and to devote his energies in future to conquer the worldly desires
and passions.He further made clear
that he aspired to emulate the examples of four earlier Tirthankaras,
viz. Vasupujya, Mallinatha,
Neminatha and Parshvanath,
who remained celibate and revealed the path of liberation to the people.

This
well thought out and planned decision of Prince Mahavira
made King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala to recon­sider
their proposal of Mahavira's marriage with Yashoda. The parents were completely convinced of his firm
resolve and hence did not wish to come in his way of realising
his goal of life. The parents, therefore, did not press the matter further and
accordingly communicated their decision, to allow Mahavira
to lead a celibate life, to King Jitashatru of Kalinga. Thus Prince Mahavirawas left free
to realise his aspirations in life. Naturally Mahavir felt a great relief and began to plan to take
definite step in the desired direction.